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Challenges Facing the Culture
R&L: What did you mean when you subtitled your 1989 book Against the Night, “Living in the New Dark Ages.” Have the last four years changed your views?Religion's Role in Public Life
R&L: Alexis de Tocqueville observed that religion is the first political institution in America, an observation you have said is even more true today than it was in the nineteenth century. Would you explain?Public Morality: The Jewish Contribution
R&L: There is a recognition by Jewish religious writers that wealth can undermine one’s spiritual well-being. In what way does this occur?Christianity, Classical Liberalism are Liberty's Foundations
R&L: Explain the difference between classical liberalism and modern liberalism.Setting the Record Straight
In recent years, the press has latched onto the work of the Evangelical Environmental Network, an organization formed under the auspices of Evangelicals for Social Action. Because many newspaper reporters and editors view evangelicals as part of the conservative “religious right,” the arrival of evangelicals who sound just like mainstream environmentalists is a news event--sort of a “man bites dog” story.Prophet or Siren? Ron Sider's Continued Influence
Ever since the 1977 publication of his Rich Christians in the Age of Hunger, Ron Sider has been among the most prominent voices calling American evangelicals to a greater concern for the poor. Since then, he has continued to write prolifically on the subject of poverty and the Christian’s obligation to the poor.A Declaration of the Rights of Land
Lord Acton observed that “few discoveries are more irritating than those that expose the pedigree of ideas.” Acton’s remark highlights the kind of uneasiness that present-day environmentalists undoubtedly must experience. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the idea that the earth’s flora and fauna should be actively protected is not the product of the ideological Left. The modern effort to preserve endangered nature was the brainchild of a Republican president, Theodore Roosevelt.Capitalism, Democracy, and Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery
John Mueller, political science professor at the University of Rochester, aims to show that capitalism works pretty well and does not deserve its bad reputation. Democracy, meanwhile, is not perfect and ought not be invested with longings for egalitarian utopia. Both are problematic but adequate (like “Ralph’s Pretty Good Grocery” of Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon, where you can get what you need, though not everything you may want).In Search of the Historian of Freedom
The quality biographer provides a portrait of his subject that extends beyond a summary description of the events central to a life. The superb biographer examines an individual life in the context of the cultural and historical milieu in which his subject lived, remaining sensitive to the forces that shaped personal and intellectual development. This, in turn, lays a foundation for appreciating a historical figure’s enduring legacy. In Roland Hill, Lord Acton has found a superb biographer.Calvin and Locke Fight for Lincoln's Soul
When it comes to beliefs about Abraham Lincoln’s religion, there are no agnostics. Scholars and laypersons alike conclude one way or another on his Christianity. The best scholarship interprets Lincoln’s religious rhetoric neither as mere political savvy nor as evangelical fervor but as a sincere expression of a practical Christianity of sorts–certainly not doctrinaire, orthodox, or conventional for his day. These works include William E. Barton’s classic, The Soul of Lincoln (1920); Richard N.The Everyday Ethics of Work
Working: Its Meaning and Its Limits is the latest to come out in an emerging series that carries the title, The Ethics of Everyday Life. In the preface, the editors describe it innocently enough as having been “produced by a group of friends [they are Timothy Fuller, Amy A. Kass, Leon R.The American Paradox
In one sense, this is a book that would make any economist happy. In describing the material and spiritual “state of the union,” Myers uses a framework of “on one hand” and “on the other hand.” Harry Truman once remarked that he wanted a one-armed economist to avoid hearing that combination. But here, it is a pleasing characteristic, as Myers provides a thorough and mostly balanced survey of the relevant research on an array of topics that are crucial to the health of our country.